20 December 2012

Police arrest a woman for wearing a prayer shawl near the Western Wall.

The struggle for egalitarianism at Jerusalem's Western Wall has escalated. Last week Israeli police guarding the entrance to the Western Wall Plaza introduced new measures forbidding women to bring prayer items such as a tallit (prayer shawl) into the area. Four women were subsequently arrested for wearing prayer shawls smuggled in by male supporters.

Rabbi Elyse Frishman of Franklyn Lakes, New Jersey, Women of the Wall Board Member Rachel Cohen Yeshurun, and two British teenagers were released without charges after three hours.

Anat Hoffmann, Executive Director of veteran NIF grantee Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and Chairwoman of Women of the Wall, which leads the fight for women to pray freely at the Western Wall, said, "Last Friday we again saw gender segregation rear its ugly head. We need help to keep up the pressure on the Israeli government to make the Western Wall a home for Jews from all denominations."

In response, IRAC has launched an online petition to be presented to the Israeli government. You can sign the petition here.

Hoffmann has herself been arrested many times for praying at the Western Wall, most recently in October, but has no intention of being intimidated into surrender. "We want to have the ability to pray out loud, to wear a prayer shawl, to read the Torah. And we want to do it without fear at the Western Wall," she said.